1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for operating many applications between a portable storage device and a digital device, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for operating many applications by constructing many logical channels using a physical channel connecting a portable storage device with a digital device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, digital rights management (DRM) has been actively researched and developed. Commercial services using DRM have already been used or will be used. DRM needs to be used because of the following various characteristics of digital content. That is to say, unlike analog data, digital content can be copied without loss and can be easily reused, processed, and distributed, and only a small amount of cost is needed to copy and distribute the digital content. However, a large amount of cost, labor, and time are needed to produce the digital content. Thus, when the digital content is copied and distributed without permission, a producer of the digital content may lose his/her profit, and his/her enthusiasm for creation may be discouraged. As a result, development of digital content business may be hampered.
Much effort has been expended to protect digital content. Conventionally, digital content protection has concentrated on preventing non-permitted access to digital content, permitting only people who have paid a fee to access the digital content. Thus, people who have paid a fee for the digital content are allowed access to unencrypted digital content while people who have not paid a fee are not allowed access. In this case, if a person who has paid a fee for the digital content intentionally distributes the digital content to other people, then the other people can use the digital content without paying for it. To solve this problem, DRM was introduced. In DRM, any one is allowed to freely access encoded digital content, but a license referred to as a rights object is needed to decode and execute the digital content. Accordingly, the digital content can be more effectively protected by using DRM.
A portable storage device is a connectable/disconnectable device such as a portable phone, a computer, or a digital camera which can store data of various types of digital equipment and is portable. The portable storage device includes a storage space for storing data and a portion performing an operation and control. A multimedia card (MMC) is a portable storage device and stores multimedia data to be used for various types of digital equipment, overcoming limitations of conventional hard disks or compact disks. The MMC also includes an operation part that is not included in conventional storage media, thereby having ability to perform control. As a result, the MMC is suitable to accommodate various kinds of multimedia data in large capacities. Recently, a security function is added to the MMC, thereby developing a secure MMC that secures digital content during storage and transmission and protects copyright. With the development of the secure MMC, rights management on digital content is possible in a storage device and digital equipment. Hereinafter, digital equipment such as a digital camera, a portable phone, a computer, and a digital camcorder will be generally referred to as a “device.”
Currently, standard open mobile alliance digital rights management (OMA DRM) is DRM defined by an OMA for the field of mobile technology. The OMA DRM has been suggested as standard DRM for data of digital content downloaded to a mobile device such as a mobile phone. However, digital data is not always moved or transmitted only from a server to a mobile phone. Digital data may be transmitted via a portable storage device. In addition, devices, e.g., digital cameras and computers, other than mobile devices usually transmit data via the portable storage device instead of using a mobile mode. Accordingly, development of DRM that covers technological characteristics of the OMA DRM and is suitable for portable storage devices is desired.
With an increase in the capacity of a secure multimedia card (MMC), many items of multimedia data can be input to the secure MMC and many rights objects for the many items of multimedia data can be stored in the secure MMC. Under this condition, if only a single rights object or a single multimedia data item can be used at a time, the advantage of large capacity of the secure MMC cannot be used efficiently. In the past, when only a single physical channel was present, only a single application was operated. However, such arrangement restricts usability of the secure MMC.
Therefore, a method of simultaneously operating a variety of applications is desired.